Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-10-09
AN EvANEsceNT PEOPLE.
., Conservatism at a Discount In America.
How Men and Times Change,

How Men and Times Change.
Conservatism is at a large discount in
this country. and | think that is the
reason we are 81 hard to please, Us the
atrical managers will testify. One year
it is all comedy and farce. and we roar
at our favorite actor going in and out Of
doors. delivering notes To the wrong par
ties and hiding under lounges, and the
next year we decline 10 indulge in more
than a weary smile. and prefer 10 shud-
der at Wilson Barrett as Claudian. Then
there comes am era Of comic opera, and
We sit open mouthed listening To iingles
which the very next season we vote
idiotic.
Now. il can't be, you know, that a
thing can be good and bad. On the very
face of il. il must he evident that Pima
fore, for example, is just as musical
and witty in 1887 as it was ten wears ago.
The change from good to bad must be
due TO the f%luctuating quality Of u al
legged minds, and it becomes US to inquire
into the cause. No such state of affairs
exists in any country outside of u own.
In Italy the opera lourishes year after
year. and the man who votes il a deuced
bore is guilty of high treason. In Ger
many there is no such thing as Il ''revi-
val" of Wagner. because he Is always
with them. and in France the dear. de-
lightful, naughty comedies have been
played from time immemorial. The
constancy with which the Dutch stick to
the quaint Kirmiss is proverbial, and
only equaled by the astonishing love of
the Russian for his monthly fair.
We are constant in nothing, not wen
in drinks. Absurd as it may appear,
there is q fashion in beverages, indie
pendent Of the seasons. The high col
Jared youth toy with brandy one year
and get fuddled on gin the next. One
winter everybody sips rum punch and
the text day they take their whisky
plain. So in smoking. 1t used TO he a
cigar, then came thu deadly cigarette.
and now pipes are tie correct thing. 1
cannot bring myself to believe that your
true pipe smoker would ever touch q
cigarette, except in anger. Nor do | be-
heye that he would smoke a pipe on the
public pave. A PIPE is synonymous with
privacy, and the sacred rites are not for
profane eyes.
Let US consider jokes and funny say
ings. What can sound more inane than
"Shoo fly. don't bodder me!'' Positively
nauseating: YET we all used to grin. gig
gle and roar about twenty years ago over
the saving. Further along, TO say
''Shoot the hat would convulse every
body within hearing. We have it from
English authorities that Walker" was
once conducive to fun in the foggy
island, but how can we point the finger
Of scorn while we smile at ''.Ah there"
and Rats" Able statisticians have
computed that the mere cost of print
ing the word chestnut in the columns
of reputable newspapers amounted To "A
n1llicn dollars. \ brief six months after
It was the epitOme of pungent wit, and
now a person is abhorred as an unclcan
thing who gives it vent, and its Use is
confined exclusively 10 English news
papers which have Just discovered it.
Not that this foolery is without its uses.
Many a mar has confuted a philosopher
with '~'chestnuts." and disarmed a critic
with rats Reioinder is impossible to
such an exclamation. except it takes the
form Of a clinched fist. But what | want
TO know is where the fun goes. and why
rats" isn't just as good a rejolnder this
year as it wa the last. IL isn't n if we
were going through a process Of evolution
and mounting upward to a point where we
would discard this tomfoolcry and talk
like Boston people, because one senselcss
gag is promptly succeeded by another
equally senseless. The good old EXPIRES
sive anatlemas will always hold their
ground, but what man can predict the
gag which will set the table in a roar ON
or about the first Of next September:
viii it be sharp and sententious. like
''rats," or will it lie long and argumenta-
tive, like What are you giving us, say
Will il be productive Of fun or a fight:
Will il live forever or die next year: